crime

WASHINGTON: Journalists faced growing dangers of being targeted for killing for their work in 2018 even as the risks from war and conflict declined, a media watchdog said Wednesday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said 34 of the 53 journalists killed on duty this year around the world were "singled out for murder."
"The number of journalists targeted for murder in reprisal for their reporting nearly doubled in 2018 from a year earlier, driving up the overall count of journalists killed on the job," the New…

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia seized more than 3.2 tonnes of elephant tusks hidden in a storage container sent from Mozambique, a customs official said Sunday, marking the country's largest ivory bust.
The discovery Thursday of 1,026 tusks at the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port followed a tip from the US embassy, the official said, and highlights Cambodia's emergence as a key regional transit point for the multibillion dollar trade in illicit wildlife.
"The elephant tusks were hidden among marble in a container that was abandoned,"…

ISLAMABAD: British High Commissioner (HC) in Pakistan Thomas Drew called on Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday (today) to discuss matters relating to cooperation in curbing organized crimes and the assets recovery.
In the meeting in Islamabad, matters pertaining to boosting bilateral trade and economic ties also came under discussion.
The two sides also highlighted the need to enhance people to people contacts during the meeting.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar…

LAHORE: In a shocking incident, a man stabbed to death his father and grandmother in Lahore's Township area on Tuesday, ARY News reported.
According to ARY News correspondent, a 70-year-old woman and her 45-year-old son were killed by one of their family members after being repeatedly stabbed with a knife in their house in the city's Township area. Experts from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency were called to collect evidence related to the double homicide.
"It is a gruesome murder, he (the murderer) probably…

LAHORE: In a shocking incident, a three-year-old child was allegedly killed by her stepmother in Lahore's Badamibagh area, ARY News reported.
According to details, dead body of a three-year-old child was recovered by police from a house in Badamibagh area. Medical examination confirmed that the minor girl was poisoned.
Police say the girl must be poisoned by her stepmother she was living with as the woman fled the house soon after the incident.
The girl's father is married three times and was living with one of…

LONDON: London police investigated more murders than their New York counterparts did over the last two months, statistics show, as the British capital’s mayor vowed to fight a “violent scourge” on the streets.
There were 15 murders in London in February against 14 in New York, according to London’s Metropolitan Police Service and the New York Police Department. For March, 22 murders were investigated in London, with 21 reports in New York.
In the latest bloodshed, a 17-year-old girl died on Monday after she was found…

JAKARTA: Indonesians could be jailed for criticising national politicians under a new law which came into force Thursday, in what critics slammed as a major step back for the world's third-biggest democracy.
The vaguely worded bill passed the 560-member house last month but has just become official, over the objections of President Joko Widodo who refused to sign off on the controversial legislation.
Widodo does not have veto power over the bill, although it can be challenged at the Constitutional Court.
The so-called…

Energy companies and other businesses that accidentally kill migratory birds will no longer be criminally prosecuted, the Trump administration said Friday in a decision hailed by industry but denounced by environmental groups.
The decision, in a legal memo from the U.S. Department of Interior, reverses a longstanding practice at the agency as well as a last-minute rule released by the outgoing Obama administration. It comes after several appeals courts ruled that the government was interpreting a century-old law aimed at…

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council on Thursday said reports that migrants detained in Libyan camps were being sold into slavery could amount to "crimes against humanity" in a joint statement of condemnation.
It follows global shock over the atrocities suffered in Libya by African migrants, many of whom are trying to reach Europe, brought home by a CNN report showing people being sold as slaves.
The council said it "condemns such actions as heinous abuses of human rights which may also amount to crimes against humanity,"…

KARACHI: Sindh Rangers claimed to have arrested four target killers associated with the militant wing of a political party in a raid carried out late Thursday night, ARY News reported.
The personnel of the paramilitary troops carried out a raid on Martin Quarters at Jahangir Road following a tip-off provided by the arrested suspects, according to the Rangers.
They said the four suspects, affiliated with a political party, were involved in heinous criminal activities.
Meanwhile, police arrested a suspect involved in…